This invention relates to a travel pack and more particularly to a utility travel pack which can be readily converted into different carrying modes for use by an adult when attending to the various needs of an infant.
Multi-purpose baby accessory bags have long been known in the art to allow an attending adult to hand carry items usually required for infant care during infant travel away from home, including such items as diapers, pins, bottles and changing pads. Many of these past travel bags have been cumbersome and limited in use, have been difficult and expensive in manufacture and assembly and have necessitated the use of further separate carrying bags, thus placing an undesirable travel burden on the attending adult. Further, a number of these travel bags have been limited in use to only one carrying mode and, if convertible to other carrying modes, have proven both ungainly in movement and unattractive in appearance.
Among the early patents known in the art are the unexpired U.S. Pats. No. 4,068,786, issued Jan. 17, 1978, which teaches a shoulder bag for carrying an infant together with infant items, the bag further serving as an infant pillow due to its geometry; No. 4,154,323, issued to J. A. Sneider on May 15, 1979, which teaches a diaper bag with long straps for hand or shoulder carry with a changing mat attached to and storable in rolled condition in the bag during travel; No. 4,186,859, issued to R. L. Frankfort on Feb. 5, 1980, which teaches a convertible bag having spaced straps which can be utilized for shoulder carry or looped for carriage suspension; and No. 4,333,591, issued to Dorothy S. Case on June 8, 1982, which teaches a baby back-pack with shoulder straps therefor. For the most part, the bag structures of these past patents have been comparatively complex in manufacture, assembly, and use and have been ungainly or unattractive or both.
The present invention provides a unique bag structure which allows ready conversion to differing carrying modes including hand, carriage suspension, shoulder or back-pack. Further, the bag structure of the present invention provides numerous compartments including a satchel unit and pouch unit which can be assembled in one complete travel pack to efficiently and separately store and carry various items needed for baby care during travel, the travel pack when used in one selected mode not being ungainly or unattractive in appearance despite a user's ability to change the overall pack or parts thereof conveniently to another carrying mode. Furthermore, the novel bag structure of the present invention lends itself both to efficient and economical manufacture, assembly and storage for ready mass production and individual use of the novel arrangement. Various other features of the present invention will become obvious to one skilled on the art upon reading the disclosure set forth herein.